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Michael Fletcher writes about the national economy for the Post, where he has been a reporter since 1995. Previously, he was a White House correspondent and he also has covered national education policy, race relations and the District government. Prior to coming to The Post, he spent 13 years as a reporter at The Baltimore Sun. Fletcher is co-author of "Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas," published by Doubleday in 2007. Born and raised in New York City, Fletcher is a graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School and Boston University.

Ariana Eunjung Cha writes about the economy for the Post and is the Web editor for its national economy and business section. She has served as the paper's bureau chief in Beijing, Shanghai and San Francisco and as a correspondent in Baghdad.

Brady Dennis writes about economic policy and financial regulation. Before coming to The Post in September 2008, he was a staff writer at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. At the Post, he was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and a Gerald Loeb Award for a three-part series he and a colleague wrote about the rise and fall of American International Group.

Zachary Goldfarb has covered the U.S. financial crisis for The Post for more than three years. Originally from Manhattan, he is a graduate of the Princeton University and now lives in Washington, D.C. He enjoys vegetarian cooking, is getting started as a cyclist and spends too much time obsessing over gadgets.

Jia Lynn Yang is a staff writer at The Washington Post who covers policy that affects corporate America. She's interested in taxes, regulation and all the ways that business and Washington try to influence and make sense of one another. Before joining The Post, Jia Lynn was a Washington correspondent for Fortune magazine.

Neil Irwin writes about the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve. He has been at the Post since 2000 and has an MBA from Columbia Business School, where he was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business Journalism. His interests include bond market data, cured pork products, and pinot noir.

Lori Montgomery writes about national economic policy emanating from the White House and Capitol Hill. A former foreign correspondent who traveled Europe pre-euro, she also covered domestic politics in such disparate locales as Dallas and Detroit. She has three kids, one dog and no time for your so-called "interests."

Ylan Q. Mui covers the consumer economy and has been a member of the Financial staff since 2005 and a staff writer since 2002. She is also an adjunct journalism instructor at the University of Maryland. Ylan graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans, where she was born and raised.

Howard Schneider covers international economics and trade for the Post. He has served in a variety of roles at the paper, three tours abroad in Israel, Egypt and Canada, and as economics editor. He is a native of Maryland's Eastern Shore, and proudly includes a chief oyster inspector among his ancestors.

Mike Shepard is the Night Editor for Economy and Business News. A graduate of Georgetown University, Mike has worked at the Post for 22 years in a variety of editing assignments. He spent 1997 teaching journalism in Brazil on a Fulbright scholarship and is a fluent speaker of Portuguese.

Political Economy explores how political forces in Washington and elsewhere in the world shape the economy and how corporate agendas influence political institutions and politicians. The blog offers new perspectives on the day's top economic and business stories with exclusive interviews with government officials and lawmakers, commentary from influential economists and analysis from Post reporters. Ariana Eunjung Cha is the blog's lead writer and Mike Shepard is the author of the daily economic agenda.

"Now that we're all used to pre-nups, it's time to start thinking about divorce insurance: Ever had that sinking feeling that the person your friend is marrying is perfectly awful? Of course not, because you love everyone. But should it happen, you now can give the perfect wedding present: divorce insurance."

Steve Pearlstein's Take

"It's hard to read this week's election results, and the public opinion polls generally, and not be concerned about the collapse of the political center.... [I disagree] that this is strictly a Republican phenomenon, in which the "tea party'' and other anti-government zealots are in the final stages of driving out experienced, thoughtful moderates from the Republican party. The dynamic on the Democratic side is as much about interest group politics as it is about political ideology, but you don't have to look hard to find it in the defeat locally of Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty and Montgomery Council member Duchy Trachtenberg, or nationally in President Obama's declining poll numbers."

Two new polls show economic worries ahead of midterms

Two new surveys released on Friday show that the public's view of the economy remains negative despite progress made by the Obama administration. The findings could spell trouble for Democrats running in the mid-term elections.

A Thompson Reuters/University of Michigan survey found that a majority of consumers believe that the economy has recently weakened and have rising concerns about long-term economic prospects.

"Confidence in government economic policies has fallen to the lowest level since the closing months of the Bush presidency, with just 11 percent of consumers holding favorable evaluations of Obama's policies," researcher Richard Curbin wrote in the report.

A Bloomberg National Poll found that likely voters in the Nov. 2 elections believe the economy is shrinking even though the recession ended in June 2009 and the economy has grown 3 percent over the past year.

"The public view of the economy is at odds with the facts, and the blame has to go to the Democrats," said J. Ann Selzer, president of the firm that conducted the survey. "It does not matter much if you make change if you do not communicate change."

The two new surveys paint a picture of economic anxiety that is consistent with a Washington Post poll released on Wednesday that found that just over half of Americans worry about making their next mortgage or rent payments.

Because of tax "loop holes", wealthy Americans and Corporations pay very little to no taxes at all. That means that everyday, average Americans shoulder and carry the tax burden within our society. Is this fair? In reality, Loop holes are just another way for the wealthy to lie and cheat and get around the law. Should loopholes be legal in America? And, what does that teach us about shouldering our fair share and being responsible or not responsible? And why have we put up with this lying and cheating for so long? What are we going to do about it?

The Republican Party, pretends that they want to lower taxes for the American people but they know full well that the loopholes they created means that Corporations and wealthy Americans will escape from paying their fair share and that every-day Average Americans will Shoulder the tax burden. Is this fair?

The Republicans pretend they want jobs here in America. But because of loop holes thousands of jobs have moved to China and India. Why do they support these loopholes so that companies invest in China and India and not here in the United States? Again, is this fair? And, is this cheating? I know it cheats the American people. Everyone knows that to create jobs, you have to invest in America. America's infrastructure, schools, technology, high-speed rails, cities and towns. You cannot continue to cut and cut, and not put anything back, after awhile you will have nothing left at all but desolation and decay.

One current example of a destroyer is the Republican Governor of New Jersey, currently proud of cutting the budget (education and services) but he will not Fund the tunnel which would have created thousands of jobs for his state. To put something back, just not desolate the state.

The Pretenders, "mission" is to sell to the American people the \"bill of goods\" that we Need less government, after all, government will only get in the way of their fraudulent schemes and try to hold them accountable to people and not to corporations! Less Government, means No Regulations and no one to keep them from their dirty deeds.

They pretend they did not "bail" out Wall Street. But because of no regulations and policing, they already bailed out Wall Street! Thank God for those sensible government officials who realized that in order to save our economy the bail out was necessary or the whole economy would have collapsed, because Bush & Co. waited until the last minute, when they were ready to get out of dodge and the collapse was imminent, to tell the American people just how badly they had squandered our economy with phony and fraudulent real-estate deals and in funding the phony and unnecessary Iraq War!

If you vote Republican or if you do not vote at all on November 2nd, and in the future you still continue to carry the tax burden while the wealthy get tax breaks, again while paying no taxes,there is no one to blame but yourself.

Minority put in a tough situation of not criticizing Obama and making him correct the illegal activity that went on, so that at least they could keep their homes and start some real program to employ people. However minorities are an additional two year behind whites making that 402yrs instead of 400, and are in no position now with the Republican looking as if they are going to pull out a big ole can of butt whipping on the Democrats on Tuesday!

How is it possible that the largest financial crime in the history of mankind, and ain't nobody but Angelo Mozilo even got a slap. Heck Michael Milkin at least had to go to jail for his $500 million. Madoff got a zillion years for only $65 billion Ponzi scheme but $5 trillion in America wealth lost and the Republicans are head for a landslide in the next race. If I have not drank the ethical kool aid and would have listen to my crooked employers I too would be rich right now instead of listening to the bleeding heart about how bad the economy is.

To think I voted against Bush in 2003 when I was making more money than I had ever made because I thought it would advance other blacks. Black people wake up, there are only 1.79% Jewish people in America and they have 15 Senator and 3 Supreme Court Judges and 40% of US billionaire are Jewish, but the list go on and on.

We are not crying about the stock market because we don't have any money to invest, as to rich preachers driving Bentleys preaching about being thankful for what you got, while they live in White House like homes.

Well I guess we got what we voted for & at least one Huxtable family lives in the White House, while every else go back to Boys in the Hood, as 55% of black were sold a subprime mortgage loan. Sure would have help having a black person other than Mr. I did not need affirmative action, never seen a law I liked to help black folk, Clarence Thomas that could have ruled for our interest. Just saying!

The Financial community should be jumping for joy as a party with the President and both Houses could not amend a system that lost $5 trillion in America wealth. And now the half black son of God want to uses black talk and he ask voters to have his back at the voting poles on Tuesday and mostly that because that the only thing the black community has seen is the back of his head leaving white backyards conducting town hall meeting because the banks would be at the black homes with fraud foreclosure robo documents and phony title assignment from MERS.

So in the first term the shovel ready job we got unfortunately were digging our own graves, now with gridlock coming to government for the next 2 yrs as we brought into the Change slogan hook line & sinker. At least with Bush it was Crook em, Hook em & How and he took care of his Oil buddies, and said let sell houses, but did not say they were going to be legal, because after all, you needed to be able to sell a non resident working illegally a home.

Mortgage refinancing means re-funding the mortgage loan with better terms as well as conditions, most likely from a different lender. It is one way to save money. Search online for "123 Mortgage Refinance" they found me 3.1% refinance rate and also gave free analysis of my mortgage.

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